A major effort to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus by 2017 will be halted if Congress doesn’t pass President Obama’s $1.9 billion emergency funding request, a federal official said Wednesday afternoon.
Republicans and Democrats are battling over whether to authorize the funding, with GOP lawmakers saying $1.8 billion is available in funds leftover for the Ebola outbreak. The mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 30 countries and territories.
The National Institutes of Health is planning on conducting preliminary trials later this year on a Zika vaccine, with hopes of getting it fast tracked and on the market by 2017.
But with no additional funding for Zika, the NIH has taken money away from research on other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and yellow fever, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Oversight Committee.
Fauci said NIH officials hope to start a preliminary human testing on the vaccine this summer, but without the emergency funding that goal is in doubt.
“I will not be able to proceed with the trial I described to you without the monies,” he told the panel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already committed most of its leftover Ebola funding, Anne Schuchat, CDC deputy director, said at the hearing.
The funds have been committed to 17 countries in Africa and Asia to help improve their health infrastructure and prepare for future outbreaks.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., asked if the money committed to those countries could be redirected to Zika. Schuchat responded that the virus is primarily in central and South American countries.
She added it would be “terribly dangerous” to redirect those Ebola funds to Zika since the Ebola outbreak is continuing, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Mica closed the hearing by saying that the panel would try to “get the resources necessary in a timely fashion.”
